ELMIRA, NY - The Utica University baseball team picked up a crucial win in game one against the Elmira College Soaring Eagles on Saturday. The Pioneers earned the 10-9 road win in what was a previously scheduled doubleheader. 
 
Austin Rhodes (Wappingers Falls, NY/Kennedy Catholic) picked up his second win of the year after going 5.1 allowing two runs on three hits and four walks. The southpaw also rang up eight batters over 27 faced. Nicholas Greene (Rome, NY/Central Valley Academy) went 1.2 innings in relief and gave up two runs on three hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts. Connor Ford (Swedesboro, NJ/Kingsway Regional) earned his second save of the year, doing so in two innings with five runs allowed (four earned) on three hits and one walk with four strikeouts. 
 
At the dish, Lance Berger (Lindenhurst, NY/Saint Anthony's) came through with a 4-for-4 effort with a home run, a walk, and three runs scored. Andrew Salbinski (Essex, CT/Valley Regional) (2-5) and Dom Fasolo (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) (pinch hit) also went yard in the win. Jacob Scalise (Utica, NY/Whitesboro) collected three hits in five trips while Jason Story (Hilton, NY/Hilton) (3 RBI) and Jack Scanlon (Rochester, NY/Aquinas Institute) (3 runs, RBI) also had three-hit games. 
 
Salbinski's home run came as the team's first run of the game with a solo blast in the top of the 2nd. Joe Crossley (Marcy, NY/Whitesboro) followed with an RBI double for a 2-0 lead after one-and-a-half innings. 
 
The Pioneers gained two more runs in the top of the 4th with RBIs from Scalise (single) and Story (sacrifice fly). In the meantime, Rhodes cruised through his first four innings of work with no runs allowed as the game moved into the 5th. 
 
There, Scanlon singled home Salbinski to extend the Pioneers' lead to 5-0. Rhodes allowed his first runs of the game in the bottom half, both of which coming with one out, before working out of the frame with no further damage allowed. He was taken out of the game in the bottom of the 6th with two runners on and one out. 
 
Utica's relief arm, Greene, walked the first batter he saw before striking out the next and inducing an inning-ending fielder's choice. 
 
The Soaring Eagles plated two runs later in the game in the bottom of the 7th to make it 5-4 before the Pioneers created separation starting in the top of the 8th. 
 
Berger connected for a solo home run for the team's lone run in the top of the 8th inning before a four-run 9th inning took place that made it a 10-4 contest. Fasolo homered for one run while Story came through for a two-RBI ground rule double. John Longeretta (Oriskany, NY/Oriskany) drove in the other run on a sacrifice fly. 
 
Elmira made things interesting in the bottom of the 9th. A bloop and a three-run home run quickly made it a 10-8 game with two outs in the inning. An error on a fielder's choice to shortstop brought in another run to make it 10-9. With a runner on second and two outs, Ford forced a game-ending ground out to himself to claim the Utica game one win. 
 
Utica (11-21, 5-7 Empire 8) and Elmira will complete the three-game series with a doubleheader starting at noon on Sunday.